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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23842648">Chrysopoeia</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourierNinetyTwo/pseuds/CourierNinetyTwo'>CourierNinetyTwo</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Modern Magic AU [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:41:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,072</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23842648</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourierNinetyTwo/pseuds/CourierNinetyTwo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Hilda wants to keep Edelgard and Lysithea safe. What she doesn't realize is that desire goes both ways.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hilda Valentine Goneril/Edelgard von Hresvelg/Lysithea von Ordelia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Modern Magic AU [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1718044</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>67</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Chrysopoeia</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdhymns/gifts">birdhymns</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Demonic Beast was twice the size of Holst's motorcycle, and just as horrifyingly loud.</p><p>Hilda had gotten used to fighting the creatures that crawled out from the university's foundation, but that didn't make them any less huge or unnerving. Six limbs bent at impossible angles, a strange fusion of hands and feet that functioned far better than they should. The quicksilver brew she'd downed like a shot kept her at the same supernatural speed, but the problem with potions was that human blood eventually tossed them out like last summer's shoes.</p><p>Convulsing black claws took a swing at Hilda's head. She ducked, and a panopticon of red, crystalline eyes followed the movement.</p><p>Logically, Hilda knew she was lucky to have a Crest at all. Some people spent their lives chasing after ancestral remnants of hedge magic or hiring other people to cast spells their bodies simply couldn't comprehend. She had a reserve to draw on at all times, that crucial spark to feed into a bottle or rune.</p><p>Unfortunately, her Crest was a minor one. Such was the fate of most of the Goneril line, which is why they had decided long ago to specialize in alchemy. There were ten thousand dry tomes debating and dictating the differences between minor and major Crests, but Hilda could sum hers up in a single word: <em> temperamental</em>. </p><p>It worked, sure, when it wanted to. Sometimes that was when a cute caster startled her in a tunnel—thanks, Edelgard—or that morning she was so hungover that her alarm clock got blasted into a reeking puddle of plastic. Hilda accepted those quirks, because at the end of the day, the Crest was supposed to keep her alive.</p><p>So why wasn't it working <em> now? </em></p><p>The aftertaste of the potion was fading on her tongue. If it vanished before this Beast went down, she was going to be yet another mangled corpse for Garreg Mach's president to explain away to the press.</p><p>She could have double dosed. After splashing a flask full of pink, bubbling acid on the creature's spiny back, Hilda had to admit the temptation was high. Drinking two of the same potion back-to-back was ill-advised for any number of reasons, especially if they weren't pulled from the same batch, but dying was less advisable. </p><p>Usually.</p><p>The cold night air reeked of rosé and burning flesh, but the Beast's hide had weathered most of the damage. It whipped out its tail, faster than Hilda had ever seen anything move, and the world blurred slow as her mind drew a line of connection from the barbed tip to the fragile caverns of her eyes.</p><p>Three things happened simultaneously: a crimson shield of runes exploded to life in front of her, a hellstorm of purple lightning shocked the Beast from head to malformed toe, and the creature was launched all the way across the quad into a park bench some rich geezer had donated to the campus two hundred years ago.</p><p>The last part was her Crest finally, <em> finally </em> doing its job, but the rest didn't parse until Hilda's eyes reconciled shrouds of white into Edelgard and Lysithea, aglow with power. Edelgard's shield collapsed into sparks, flowing back to her hand and regenerating as a shining red axe, while Lysithea was charging the Beast in a crackling violet frenzy.</p><p>Hilda had never felt such a confusing mix of guilt and relief in her life. She'd spent months hunched over the Goneril cauldron, testing alchemical formulas until one was finally strong enough to keep Lysithea out of bed—most days—but only found limited progress on a cure for the cost of the younger girl's magic. Edelgard suffered much the same, although her secondary Crest did a better job of keeping her upright.</p><p>She watched half a year burn away as Lysithea wrenched the Beast's head high, holding its twitching limbs in a web of lightning. Edelgard pushed off her back foot and swung the axe with both hands, cutting into the soft flesh of the monster's throat and through to its reinforced spine. Bone shattered and the Beast collapsed in a writhing heap as the crystals in every bulging socket expelled themselves.</p><p>Its body vanished in a haze of bitter black smoke, the crystals falling with a soft clink in front of Lysithea's clean white shoes. She and Edelgard were panting for breath as their Crests cooled down, plunging the quad back into half-light when their magic gave up its hold on reality.</p><p>"Hilda, are you all right?" Edelgard asked, sweat drenching her brow.</p><p>She ran over to the white-haired pair with a speed that would make Claude's fancy sports car sputter, putting a hand on Edelgard's shoulder and offering the other to Lysithea, giving her a shoulder to lean on.</p><p>"I should be asking the two of <em> you </em> that," she huffed, trying to stopper the anger in her tone. It wasn't outrage, but concern gone white-hot. "Spending my spells just means three farmer's specials at the diner after midnight. But when you...you didn't have to..."</p><p>The anger was displaced by tears, a different and unexpected warmth.</p><p>"That monster would have torn you apart," Lysithea said softly, without a hint of regret.</p><p>"Do you think we'd let that happen?" Edelgard added. "After everything you've done for us?"</p><p>"I don't know if I want to punch or kiss you both right now," Hilda muttered.</p><p>A smile flashed across Lysithea's face. "Statistically, I'd say it's the second one."</p><p>Hilda's heart ached, twisting on itself to reconcile the conflict. Part of her was still haunted by what Edelgard and Lysithea had just given up, but it made her all the more determined to find a fix—one that would refund every stolen minute.</p><p>She threw her arms around the two of them in a tight hug, face buried against tangled strands of white hair. It took a bit of a bend—she really was way taller—but it was worth it to breathe in the gentle lavender scent of Lysithea's perfume and Edelgard's sharply defined cologne.</p><p>"You drive a girl mad," Hilda whispered, "but it's also super great having a power couple be so into me." </p><p>Lysithea's indignant huff undoubtedly signaled a blush, but her slender arm tightened around Hilda's back, and Edelgard's head turned to listen to the beat of her heart.</p><p>They stayed that way for a while, cradled in the dark and breaths rising in sync.</p><p>—</p>
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